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Vintage Mystery Cab ISO of A Pair of Wheels

In a nutshell: my dog-knows-from-where, dog-knows-how-old cab needs new wheels, and the hubs aren't anythinmg i've been able to find.

the axle is solid steel, 1" diameter. at the wheel-end, it steps down to 3/4" before the axle-nut threads begin.

the hub flanges are relatively high and 36-holed for heavy-duty spokes. the flanges are welded to a steel tube with i.d. of 1 1/4". the inner side of that tube has a 1/8" thick ring welded inside with a 1/4" gap (key-way). the outer side of the hub body features a welded-in ring 1/4" thick to fit snuggly over the narrower ends of the axle.

they are laced to 24" heavy-duty steel rims.

questions:

1) anyone know where i can find these hubs (or fully built wheels) ready to use?

2) what do y'all imagine the damage'd be to have replicas machined for me? how would i go about finding a good/cheap machinist?

3) how big a pain-in-the-ass would it be to retrofit my beast with a different axle?

pics are in the post below. more pics--if'n you're interested--can be found in my mystery rig gallery

thanks, y'all!

UPDATE: the cab featured in the pictures below is not the cab in question; it's an identical model. according to its owner/operator, one half of the axle was replaced with half the axle from a broke-down tipke. that would suggest this axle is compatible with tipke hubs. someone with more tipke experience wanna back this one up? (ken, i'm looking at you...)

Last edited by kludge; 21-04-2010 at 17:26.
Reason: added images and a link to gallery

we had hubs just exactly like that made up in a welding shop back in the late 90's. The 24" rims were stock equipment on Kabuki Kabs of which we had a half dozen.
if you use a 270mm spoke, you can lace them to a 26" worksman rim in the 36 hole version.
Those axles used to be available from Dave's Kart & Cycle in Phoenix, they came in a 48" length, keyway extending the whole length, with the reduced end parts already made. The thinking is you can cut the axle to your own length.
the downside was that it had to be machined out on the cut end in order for the stub shaft coming out of the differential to fit up. They would hold up maybe 9 months of heavy use.
The hubs you have in those pictures were laced in a manner we found to be not very long lasting. When I relaced all of our wheels from 24 to 26 inch I put the laces in a more standard pattern and it would work as long as the spokes were checked each month.
if one lets the tension get at all slack, it would not be uncommon for a cab to break two or three spokes in a night of use.
as to your refit question, I ended up refitting all half dozen of my Kabuki's to Main Street drive trains due to the availability of parts.
at first I would cut the stock main street axles on my own mill to accept the key ways for the dual brake rotors but eventually gave that up as too much hassle and just converted the rigs to single rotor. Dual rotor has the advantage, but when you get past a certian number of rigs in the house, time becomes more of an issue.
I do kinda miss the feeling of having a stable full of boutique hand made rigs, but such are the prices of being human and having only limited time to give to the craft of hand made.
billy o
arizona pedal cab

UPDATE: the cab featured in the pictures below is not the cab in question; it's an identical model. according to its owner/operator, one half of the axle was replaced with half the axle from a broke-down tipke. that would suggest this axle is compatible with tipke hubs. someone with more tipke experience wanna back this one up? (ken, i'm looking at you...)

It looks like a Tipke hub would fit. One would have to try it out. Personally I do not like Tipke hubs. One can lace them up with normal rims and spokes with washers on the spoke to keep them from pulling through the larger spoke holes, but that still limits you to 36 hole rims. I tend to make my own half axles to work with more modern aluminum hubs.

thanks for the hint, ken. in the interest of simplicity and fewer future headaches, i went ahead and bought a mainstreet axle, brake, and hubs. hopefully i' will be lacing them up to salsa gordos this week. soon enough, that huge pile of parts will be one pimp pedicab restoration.

i'm going to document the fleas off this build, so anyone who's interested can see all about it here. thanks again, ken and billy.